Blog

Insider #Projects2010 Conference Preview

by William Newman

October 20, 2010

With less than a week to go I have some thoughts and expectations around Projects2010. While I have worked with SAP Insider for a number of years, this will be my first Projects conference. Which seems odd since ... well ... that's generally how we implement SAP based on some form of governance and I've been swimming in those waters for nearly 15 years.

I'll be particularly interested to hear how we can do things differently in the ever-increasingly complex and more rapid world we live in, where a project break-even window is lucky to have more than 12 months. We are biting off smaller and smaller pieces, in more stand-alone application spaces, and being very tactical about our spending and our capabilities. Unfortunately what I see are traditional PMBOK models being executed at faster paces, which I guess works for most MIT engineering school graduates but not for the vast population of team leads, developers, and business analysts who work in SAP projects.

On Thursday I'll be hosting a few sessions where we address organization change management and how traditional approaches get lost in the shuffle of structuring projects with greater agility and in multi-project environments. I'll also look at the unique nature of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) programs, which have a much different footprint than traditional ERP or SCM deployments.

I would imagine there will also be some buzz around mobile app projects. I met with one of our Tier-1 systems integrator partners yesterday who shared with me some of the bold moves they are making to develop carrier mobile apps on the Sybase / SAP platform. It's the wild
west all over again.

I plan to be at Meet the Experts on Thursday evening and the networking receptions Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.